Phase II

For real estate deals, the standard process for evaluating environmental risks is to conduct a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) followed by a Phase II Investigation when a Recognized Environmental Condition (REC, suspected contamination) is identified. Typically, the first question a consultant receives when a Phase II is recommended is “how much?” followed by “can you do it cheaper?” These are fair questions and I ask them myself with my CPA, handy man, painters, mechanic, etc. The big challenge for W&M is balancing the Phase II scope of work with costs. The bigger the scope (e.g., number of samples, chemical analyses, etc.), the higher the price will be. Sure it would be nice if we could collect one “magic sample” but such a sample doesn’t exist. I like to compare the sampling process to playing the board game Battleship. We can make some educated guesses but don’t really knowRead More

Where I work, our Mission Statement is “We Get Projects Done”. The implication is one of speed, in that the project gets finished in a timely matter. For a long time we relied on gut feel for the speed of the project completion. We have now developed an equation to quantify the velocity (or time for completion) of a project. Estimating the project velocity can give the project team a fair estimate of the days it will take to complete the project based just on the project budget. There are many factors that can alter a project’s schedule, weather, regulatory demands, client changes, etc. So this tool was not designed to be anything but a rough estimate of the potential time needed based solely on the budget. EQUATION: Project Velocity (days) = Budget (in dollars) +1737.3 / 173.65 For example, a $10,000 project would be expected to be completed inRead More

W&M conducted a sewage spill investigation in Fort Worth, TX for a national insurance firm. A landowner claimed that a sanitary sewer in the neighborhood was constructed incorrectly resulting in a discharge of sewage. W&M collected soil samples at the spill site and confirmed that there was a release of sewage containing eleveate levels of E coli (Escherichia coli). There was no direct exposure to the landowners and steps were taken to remediate the problem.